to look a lot like Christmas

Who am I kidding?
it looks and feels nothing like Christmas
here in one-hundred-and-way-too-hot Arizona

But here is an inconvenient truth

CHRISTMAS IS ONLY 137 DAYS AWAY

Okay okay, so that seems like a long time and not all that inconvenient
but if you are planning to make your Christmas gifts this year
(which I highly recommend!)right now is the perfect time to get started!
Before you totally freak out and go to the store and buy gifts.
Think of the relief when the holiday season rolls around
And you’ve made your list
and checked it twice!
And in that spirit, I have put all my holiday fabric on sale!
For the rest of August
Seriously…huge sale!

Do you remember the Christmas Patchwork Quilt I made? A picture to jog your memory?

My friend, Carly, wrote up this pattern for her Etsy shop. It uses one layer cake (pre-cut 10 inch squares) and one charm pack (pre-cut 5 inch squares). It is a GREAT quilt for beginners! The top goes together quickly since you’re using pre-cut fabric.

So guess what?!?!? Carly is letting me sell her patterns in my store. And I’ve made this exact quilt available as a kit! So you can make one too! Even better? This particular kit includes the backing! You can find it here.

Speaking of Christmas….we are about HALF WAY through this year! WOW! So even though it’s nice and warm outside – it’s not too early to start your Christmas sewing! Did you join in the Advent Calendar Sew Along? I guess I did since I have the button on my blog….but I haven’t made anything yet. In fact, we have never even used an Advent Calendar in my house. Oh well. If you’re looking for Holiday fabrics for the sew along…or for any project, I have added a few new things to the Seasonal Fabric section of my website.

Okay so you’ve stuck with me this long….why not have a little give away?!?!? I would love to send ONE person the kit and pattern for this super fun Christmas Quilt. Just leave me a comment telling me what are some of the gifts you would like to make for the holidays this year. I like to leave these up for about a week but we’ll be leaving town next week. So I’m guessing that I’ll need to wrap this up after the weekend. So comment away! And if you don’t win…well you know where to find them!

I got this bright idea today. I would make something festive to wear tonight (Christmas festivities, you know!). “I’ll make a cute shirt.”

BAD bad idea. The bust is like 10 times too big -and that’s saying something – cuz I’m not lacking up there – and then it was like 10 times too small in the waist and hip area – which is really not all that surprising. So, about one o’clock I gave up, put a frozen pizza in (hmm….shocking I have waist problems when I eat such wonderful meals, eh?) and threw it in the trash.

EEK – I know! I feel a little bit lot guilty about that. I really do. But you see – that fabric has absorbed so much anger and frustration and if I touch it again the same feelings will immediately overwhelm me and therefore ruin any re-purposing project I might attempt. The good news is that it’s in my sewing trash and not the kitchen trash, so if guilt is still ruling my life tomorrow morning, it may get rescued – only to immediately be cut apart so I don’t have to remember the horrific experience from this morning. Sorry no pictures of the first disaster – you know, the whole anger ruling over me thing.

Okay – so it’s like 1:30. You think I would give up on the whole “I should make something to wear tonight” thought. Would you believe that I am just a little bit stubborn?!?!? So I start over with a new pattern and new fabric. (And no, I didn’t pre-wash my fabric – I have no time for such formalities at this point.) I’m nearly finished when my hubby arrives home at 3:45. I just have to hem the tunic and sew on a button. I try it on – and then my husband says something genius like “You’re wearing that? It doesn’t look finished.” The translation in my head goes more like this. “Oh my Lord, you look horrible – you fat cow.” So I rip it off, put on my black sweater (black is slimming, you know) and stomp back downstairs. *sigh*

Just now I decided to try it on again. It’s not THAT bad – is it? Maybe it’s the whole long shirt/dress thing over jeans that really messed up my husband. (I’m hoping it wasn’t the fat cow thing.) I am meeting some friends tomorrow for lunch – maybe I’ll wear it then (if I get the hem done – oh yeah, and the tie sash thingy – right now that’s just a strip of fabric.)

The earrings, however, are good no matter what I wear. They are from my friend ModMoxie. I think they are wonderful! Visions of sugar plums dance in my head.

Haley’s Christmas dress was made using Mary Engelbreit’s Isn’t Christmas Jolly fabrics. (By the way, all Seasonal fabrics are on sale!) I love the little peppermint candies and the vintage toys.

I used Pink Figs The Lily Top pattern. A very cute pattern indeed! I made it long so that it would be a full length dress. The most notable thing about this dress is the shirring. It’s a technique that many are afraid to tackle, but it was very easy. You hand wind elastic thread onto your bobbin, lengthen a straight sticth to a 4 and sew like normal. There are 4 rows of stitching spaced about 1/4 inch apart. When you’re done sewing, you tie off the elastic ends, and then blast the area with steam from your iron. It shrinks the elastic thread and the material gathers up. Very cute, don’t you think? It has shirring around the neck, the waist and the sleeves. I’ll be doing more shirring for sure. Very fun! (And easier than casing elastic if you ask me!)